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Sat, Jul 04, 2009 - 11:26 PM EDT  —  AAPL: 140.02 (-2.81, -1.97%)  |  NASDAQ: 1796.52 (-49.20, -2.67%)

Mossberg: Apple’s MobileMe far too flawed to be reliable
Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 11:01 AM EDT

"After a week of intense testing of [Apple's MobileMe] service, I can't recommend it, at least not in its current state. It's a great idea, but, as of now, MobileMe has too many flaws to keep its promises," Walter S. Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.

"I am not referring to the launch glitches that plagued MobileMe earlier this month, such as servers that couldn't keep up with the traffic and email outages that, for some users, persist as I write this. Those were bad, but they have eased considerably. Apple already has apologized for them and is giving customers an extra 30 days on their subscriptions to make up for the poor start. The problems I am citing are systemic," Mossberg reports.

"In my tests, using two Macs, two Dell computers and two iPhones, I ran into problem after problem. One big issue is that while changes made on the Web site or the iPhone are instantly pushed to the computers, changes made on computers are only synced every 15 minutes, at best. Apple has admitted that this is a problem, and says it is working on it," Mossberg reports.

"If Apple does get MobileMe working smoothly, it could be a terrific service. But it's way too ragged now," Mossberg reports.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple screwed the pooch with their MobileMe launch. First impressions mean everything. See: Newton. It's painfully obvious that heads should roll over this mess. To those responsible: you failed. Miserably. If Jobs hasn't axed you yet, he should have. He probably wants you to try to fix it first, but, come on Steve: "Bozo Alert!" Get someone on this who knows what the hell they're doing. Apple MobileMe employees: Don't worry, it'll be fine, we hear that Microsoft is looking for people; you'll fit in just fine up there. In fact, so far, this whole MobileMe thing is positively Microsoftian, and that's being overly kind.

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Jul 24, 08 - 11:06 am Comment from: Mac User since 1984

Am I the only one who isn't having problems with MobileMe? Okay, I get that "push" should not mean "in 15 minutes" but other than the cheap thrill of seeing a change pop up live on the screen, the service has lived up to my expectations. Before MobileMe, keeping my contacts and calendar sync'd by USB or through the old .Mac iSync system was a pain.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:06 am Comment from: andintroducing

I have the service and I like it. A LOT.

Yeah there are some glitches, but 90% of the execution has been great in my test so far.

Not sure I need sync more than every 15 mins, but yeah narrowing that down wouldn't be bad.

Still does stuff on my phone that it never did before. And I like it!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:07 am Comment from: matt

if anyone but uncle walt had said it... wink

Jul 24, 08 - 11:08 am Comment from: Al

And you thought Mossy was a paid Apple Astroturfer.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:08 am Comment from: Your Mom BluRay

Idisk performance has been crap most of the time...

Jul 24, 08 - 11:09 am Comment from: Jeremy

Judging by the problems he said he had and the ones I know I had, I would say that Mossberg went rather easy on Apple here. MobileMe is simply a non-working service at this point.

It's impossible to gloss over that fact.

If Microsoft were behind this mess, it would be a huuuge deal, but Apple is getting somewhat of a "pass" based on their (mostly) good performance previous to this fiasco.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: Why Microsoft

"The whole thing so far is positively Microsoftian, and that's being overly kind."

It's now standardly Appleian. What major product launch has Apple not screwed the pooch on recently?

Jul 24, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: peragrin

actually half of my calendars are subscriptions to other calendars which don't get pushed through to my iphone.

I can use the online version but it gives me problems in creating entries as it switches to the mobile version which doesn't allow edits.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: andintroducing

Only problem I have is that my calendar when viewed on the web is all messed up. Times are wrong, events are moved.

But on both the computer and the phone everything is exceptional.

Oh and that there's not a way to choose "All Calendars" as the default calendar on the iPhone.

iCal suggests you split your calendar into work and home and then the phone makes you choose which is the default, as if people aren't whole human beings.

Now that I will say is very dumb. You can get it to view ALL, but if you reset or something like that, you only see half or less of your calendar.

Thought I'd lost everything one day, but was just in a stupid default view.

And still MobileMe rocks my world!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:12 am Comment from: andintroducing

Despite the problems it's an awesome service.

I say don't listen to Mossberg on this one!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:13 am Comment from: No Paycheck for You

"And you thought Mossy was a paid Apple Astroturfer."

Looks like Steve's cut him off. In the last few months he's been writing articles that are actually objective.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:14 am Comment from: Amazin1

I agree with Mac User - not perfect on push but it has been living up to my expectations quite well.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:14 am Comment from: MacSoftwareList.com

I have had some problems with iDisk uploads. Also, the web app seems to freeze or quit. I get an error message saying that the script is taking to long to execute. I also want my bookmarks back in online form the way they were in dot mac. Apple, I love the new look, but the implementation sucks.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: MacBill

I personally know 3 people who have NOT HAD ACCESS to any of their MobileMeEMAIL FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK! Apple, what the hell is GOING ON OVER THERE? NO EMAIL FOR 7 DAYS?! THIS IS RIDICULOUS AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

I, myself, had ZERO ability to sync my MobileMe account until 2 days ago. At least that's finally working for me, but not having email for 7 days? TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Especially for a PAID SERVICE.

Check out the postings on Apple's Discussion Boards -- people are literally losing business over this, because it is their only email account! I say it's time to switch everything to Gmail and Google's apps instead.

APPLE, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:19 am Comment from: drg

Actually my MobileMe is working perfectly..no complaints at all.
But all our computers are Macs!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:20 am Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

All great achievers need to fail miserably sometimes. It keeps them from getting overly confident. This is a good thing for Apple. It will remind them that everything they touch doesn't automatically turn to gold.

Apple's last royal f__k-up was the Cube in July 2000. One huge failure every 8 years is just about right to keep you on your toes. Plus, let's look at another bright side; when Apple gets MobileMe fixed maybe they will give it a new name to indicate it ain't the same POS. MobileMe is really a hooky name.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:21 am Comment from: t

I haven't had any problems with mobileme. I would say though I don't have an iPhone, I wish I did, so I don't know all of the problems that iPhone users are experiencing.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:22 am Comment from: Original Shiva

I also like it a lot. I got the impression all the info transfer would happen instantly or close to. 'Non-working service' technically isn't correct. It is slower than we would like. I'm sure the 15 minutes will soon be diminished. Remember the conversations about the lack of 3G and that happened.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:24 am Comment from: coolfactor

me.com is nice and quick for me now. I'm surprised they're not using the browser-side database features yet (HTML 5 feature). That's probably coming, and would go a long way to speeding things up further, but for now, it does seem to be doing some form of caching.

My email was out for a totally of 3.25 hours a few days ago. The only time. I feel sorry for those still having mail problems.

And Mail.app does get messages "pushed" nearly instantly most of the time, since MobileMe uses the IMAP IDLE command, which is the recommended way to do Push email.

Just need iCal and Address Book updated with Push.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:25 am Comment from: DJ

Yes well... I'm still a onepercenter with no email.

Just as well I use another mail solution for day-to-day stuff.

As it is, I can sit back and let Apple resolve things in its own time, but it could have been dvital, and may well be for others.

Not so hot ;(

Jul 24, 08 - 11:26 am Comment from: zaxxon4

This is nowhere near Microsoft. Apple will most likely have it fixed in a month or two. Microsoft would declare them features, and fix them in two years when the next version comes out.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:27 am Comment from: Jim

I'm going to have to agree with Goatberg on this one. The potential of what it promises is amazing. But the problems I'm having really make this an un-fun "upgrade".

First off, iPhone problems (please see daringfireball.net) such as glitchy screen performance and slow response time on some apps (Apple and 3rd party) are just plain annoying. What really sucks with Mail on the iPhone though is when I delete emails that have been pushed from MobileMe. I can delete them one at a time or in batch but when I do... THEY SHOW UP AGAIN AS UNREAD MESSAGES. WTF?! I JUST deleted them and they're right back in the inbox. Unacceptable.

I even went so far as to completely re-install the iPhone 2.0 OS without using my personal backup. Still glitchy. Not good at all. Not Apple.

On the Mac, things seem to work just fine except for the 15 minute delay. That is also unacceptable. Apple, do not fall into the MS trap. You are the light in the darkness. Please stop doing this. Fix the problems and move on.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: spliceguys

The sad thing is that it took me about 5 days to get my new iPhone to actually start synching with mobile me, even though all my information was there and showing.. I ended up having three different databases.. my computer, mobile me and the iphone.. None would update the other over the air..
Not bragging, but I'm very knowledgeable with macs. I always apply only combo updaters, repair permissions, etc..

I eventually found the problem to be corruption in the Sync Services folder with the help of other Mac folks on the apple discussion boards.. After deleting the contents of that folder, my service is now working great.

The rest of my family, who all rely on me to update their macs would have been totally screwed as regular users having no idea how to fix the problems.. Many of them had the same problems. One of my sister's is part of the 1% without e-mail for a week now.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Jamie

My MobileMe is working perfectly, I have no complaints. It was offline for a few days during the transition, but anyone who thought this would be smooth is a fool.

The MobileMe account I use for work can't publish iWeb sites at the moment, but I just put the files for the client into my public folder (password protected PDFs) and send them the link for that instead. Always have a Plan B.

No complaints from me.

Tip: ALWAYS archive your Mailboxes before a transition like this. Never rely on a 3rd party, no matter who they are, to preserve your data, you are asking for trouble.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: ericdano

A valid complaint, however, you can FORCE it to Sync right away.........

Jul 24, 08 - 11:31 am Comment from: tikianimator

Is anyone else getting a lot of spam since the conversion to @me.com e-mails?

Jul 24, 08 - 11:32 am Comment from: MobileMe non sell

I had been on teetering on the 3G purchase, but finally decided to go for it.

I'm giving MobileMe a trial run now. Had all the problems many had. I can accept that. What I still can't accept is the crappy product this is for $100 a year.

My suggestions for immediate improvement:

1. Include a customized domain name with the cost;
2. Allow for IMAP to gmail and others. Why should I have to forward my GMAIL account here;
3. iPhone needs a setting to customize the sent from / reply to e-mail address;
4. Option for iPhone consolidated in box; and
5. I know this is pushing the envelope... but a database for web programmers. I would then kill my hosting account with another vendor. Prefer --- MySQL.

I know #5 will never happen, and I suppose I can live with that. But the other 4 - MobileMe and iPhone changes would make me a subscriber when my trial ends. Without those, no money from me.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Ampar

"Apple screwed the pooch with their MobileMe launch."


MOOF ! ! !

Jul 24, 08 - 11:35 am Comment from: Jordan

iPhone launch screw ups...

MobileMe launch screw ups...

What's next? I haven't had the time to read the full Lord Mossberger review yet, but does he mention the lack of full IE support? How ridiculous is that?! It's by far the most used browser ANYWHERE, every other developer can make Web 2.0 and AJAX work on IE7, but not Apple? What a load of crap.

And here come the "IE is crap" flames... Whatever your take on IE, you can't disagree with the FACTS I've presented.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:35 am Comment from: sleeve

well, I've been using the "Back to My Mac" and "screen sharing" from the office to home and I am in love!!!! I've always wanted the "home server" but had no desire to shell out the cash for a dynamic IP address to make everything run smoothly. Now I have access to the 600gb of music sitting on my kitchen table hooked up to an aging g4 iMac. Music streams great... no lag or buffering needed! seriously, this is the best thing EVER!!!!! The best part is, after years of trying to figure out a way to make this happen, I found it by accident. I have no problem throwing down $$$ every year to keep this option.

the best side effect - I can now freak my roomate out by cranking up really bad songs in iTunes without being there! HAHAHHHA!

Seriously tho, best.feature. ever. at least for me! Now, we'll see how my opinion changes once I play with the rest of the services.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:35 am Comment from: larry turnauer

Still no major problems here.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:40 am Comment from: madgunde

MobileMe had a rough start the first week, but it's working fine for me now. I absolutely love the wireless syncing of my contacts, calendars and bookmarks. Even if it were only every 15 minutes on the iPhone, it would still be worth it. I hated having to manually sync via USB so that recently added data would sync.

When I enter something on my Mac and want to see it right away on my iPhone, I just click the "Sync Now" option in the iSync menu on the top right corner of my Mac's screen. Funny how nobody ever mentions you CAN manually execute a sync whenever you want. I mean, while I'm sitting at my desk, do I really need my iPhone to be updated more than every 15 minutes with the stuff that's on my computer?

If you're gonna shut your computer down or pack it up to bring it with you, just do a quick sync before you go. If you're leaving your Mac running, then just walk away, your iPhone will get the info you JUST updated within 15 minutes. If you updated the info on your computer more than 15 minutes ago, your iPhone already has it!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:42 am Comment from: TexasAg03

I waited until the week following the release of 2.0 and MobileMe and I have had no trouble at all.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:44 am Comment from: alansky

For some people, MobileMe's web gallery alone will be worth the price of admission. I have never seen any similar service that is even close to being this easy to use. It does everything except take the pictures for you!

I do understand that some people have experienced service interruptions; and the performance of the MobileMe website is still sluggish. But what we are witnessing here is the not very graceful introduction of something that's going to be really good. Just wait.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:54 am Comment from: Maginary

I really like the push email to my account. Some of the photo gallery is working in a squirrelish fashion, but otherwise, it's not bad. I do wish I could pick a set of pictures to upload from the iPhone instead of one-at-a-time.

Great concept, let's get it working 100% of the time and the planets will once again align.

I'm maintaining the faith.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:54 am Comment from: Failing

"All great achievers need to fail miserably sometimes."

Except lately Apple is failing ALL THE TIME.

Jul 24, 08 - 11:56 am Comment from: SMacSteve

I'll chime in as well and say that I've been having good luck with Mobile Me. No problems here!

Jul 24, 08 - 11:57 am Comment from: Mike from Fernie

is anyone using the webmail and when they reply to a message it immediately saves a draft? This is great but then when I hit "send" it doesn't delete the partially saved draft.

I am using a Vista computer for webmail at work. It pushes nicely to my home and now I have 6 drafts at home too.

Jul 24, 08 - 12:00 pm Comment from: Crazylegs

maybe you guys should give RIM some credit for how reliable their email service is...

Jul 24, 08 - 12:03 pm Comment from: rahrens

@Mac User since 1984;

No, you are not alone. No glitches here, not enough to scream about anyway. Push works fine, battery life is good on the iPhone & it gets the messages 90% of the time before my Mac does!

Since I get a corporate discount, that discounted amount is fine by me for the good service I've gotten since it was free lo those many years ago!

Jul 24, 08 - 12:04 pm Comment from: baritus

Funny name and some small glitches like the one above but over all this is much better than .Mac was, I'm getting a lot more use out of it already. It works well for me (2 macs and an iPhone) and will probably get better.

Jul 24, 08 - 12:05 pm Comment from: rahrens

"maybe you guys should give RIM some credit for how reliable their email service is..."

Except for all those dead nights that morphed into dead DAYS?

LOL! You need a better example...

Jul 24, 08 - 12:06 pm Comment from: Macinfo

The problems will be resolved, I suspect if some of you were in the room with this, you'd might get a clue as to how complicated this really is and sometimes no matter how much testing you do, you cannot anticipate what will happen under real live conditions.. Which is why some people are having no issues and others are.

Course, making sure that the features were documented and not trying to change the meaning of "push" would have solved some issues from the start.

Jul 24, 08 - 12:08 pm Comment from: Mike from Fernie

@baritus

I agree. I think things will work better and I am happy that things eventually will be really slick if you are a person who uses multiple devices.

@ anyone:
I've never used idisk (even with .mac) and am wondering a question: Is the only folder that isn't password protected the /Public folder? Can any access the other folders if they have the password? Can more folders be created?

Thanks

Jul 24, 08 - 12:09 pm Comment from: Goople

neither apple nor microsoft know much about cloud services...I would have preferred to see a google partnership here

Jul 24, 08 - 12:09 pm Comment from: binarypackrat

No Mobile Me probs here.

Jul 24, 08 - 12:10 pm Comment from: 49erPress

i had .mac and i love my mac, ipods and iphone, but apple screwed the pooch on this one.

their customer support has been down right negligent and their advertising failed to mention some key pieces of information (ie. MobileMe won't sync with Outlook if you are using exchange which most of the working world uses).

still got love for you apple, but you need to get these problems resolved and do some damage control.

Jul 24, 08 - 12:13 pm Comment from: Wingsy

I have 2 3G iPhones and both work as advertised with MobileMe. No email down time, no refusal to sync. At first I thought I did have a problem with contacts not syncing but that turned out to be that 15 minute delay between a change in your Mac and seeing a change on your phone.

Now if they would only fix whatever the problems are with that pesky 1% group then maybe they can get on with providing me with A SIMPLE PERIODIC REMINDER BEEP when I've missed a call or message. (How stupid not to have that.)

Jul 24, 08 - 12:17 pm Comment from: David F.

Well finally somebody speaks up on this. I agree with another poster that had anyone else said it, the nasty flames would have begun. Mossberg is right. My MobileMe has been down for one whole week now. I have missed a number of important emails, but took the initiative to contact those from whom I was expecting messages and have them send me information to another address.

Apple has really disappointed a true fan this time around. I live with Apple products and I am one of the greatest advocates. Do you know how embarrassing it has been to tell people my email (Apple Email) has been down for a whole week and no explanation or estimated time to restore has been provided?

Jul 24, 08 - 12:18 pm Comment from: TheConfuzed1

This is why I like Walt--He says it like it is.

He usually is as rabid for Apple as most of us here, but when it's bad, he says so.

That speaks highly of his credibility, and makes his Apple recomendations that much more valid.

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